Constantine's Bridge (Danube)

Constantine's Bridge
Coordinates 43°45′49″N 24°27′25″E / 43.76361°N 24.45694°E / 43.76361; 24.45694
Crosses Danube
Locale Between Sucidava (present-day Corabia, Romania) and Oescus (modern Gigen, Bulgaria)
Characteristics
Total length 2,437 m (7,995 ft)
Width 5.7 m (19 ft)
Height 10 m (33 ft)
History
Construction end 328 AD
Opened July 5, 328 AD[1]
Closed mid-4th century[2]

Constantine's Bridge on the map

Constantine's Bridge (Romanian: Podul lui Constantin cel Mare; Bulgarian: Константинов мост, Konstantinov most) was a Roman bridge over the Danube. It was completed or rebuilt[3] in 328 and remained in use for no more than four decades.[4] It was officially opened on July 5th, 328 in the presence of the emperor Constantine the Great.[1] With an overall length of 2437 m, 1137 m of which spanned the Danube's riverbed,[5] Constantine's Bridge is considered the longest ancient river bridge and one of the longest of all time.[6]

Construction

It was a construction with masonry piers and wooden arch bridge and with wooden superstructure. It was constructed between Sucidava (present-day Corabia, Olt County, Romania) and Oescus (modern Gigen, Pleven Province, Bulgaria),[7][8] by Constantine the Great.[9] The bridge was apparently used until the mid-4th century,[2] the main reason for this assumption being that Valens had to cross the Danube using a bridge of boats at Constantiana Daphne during his campaign against the Goths in 367.[10]

17th-century map - depiction as Trajan Bridge

Technical data

The length of the bridge was 2434 m with a wooden deck with a width of 5.70 m at 10 meters above the water.[11] The bridge had two abutment piers at each end, serving as gates for the bridge.

Researches

While Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli attempted to locate the bridge in the 17th century and Alexandru Popovici and Cezar Bolliac worked in the 19th, the first real scientific discoveries were performed by Grigore Tocilescu and Pamfil Polonic in 1902. In 1934 Dumitru Tudor published the first complete work regarding the bridge, and the last systematic approach on the north bank of the Danube was performed in 1968 by Octavian Toropu.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Madgearu 2013, p. 311.
  2. 1 2 CIMEC Archeologica report http://www.cimec.ro/scripts/arh/cronica/detail.asp?k=2210
  3. ↑ Biblioteca „V.A. Urechia“ site http://www.bvau.ro/docs/doc_eng.htm
  4. ↑ Pontica nr.40 page 360
  5. ↑ Both figures from: Tudor 1974, p. 139; Galliazzo 1994, p. 319
  6. ↑ Galliazzo 1994, p. 319
  7. ↑ Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Național de Antichități — Institutul de Arheologie „Vasile Pârvan” http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/ArhivaDigitala/4Pamfil20Polonic/PolonicP_Varia_71planse/Planse_sumar.htm
  8. ↑ Pamfil Polonic aflate în arhiva Muzeului Național de Antichități — Institutul de Arheologie „Vasile Pârvan” http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/Digitalarchives/4Pamfil%20Polonic/Polonic.htm
  9. ↑ International Database Of Structures http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0003933
  10. ↑ Kulikowski, Michael (2007). Rome's Gothic Wars. Cambridge University Press. pp. 116–117. ISBN 0-521-84633-1. at Google Book Search
  11. ↑ Pontica 2007 page 360

References

Further reading

External links

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